Costa said earlier that he could fight Chimaev or Strickland, but the American claims that he has already been excluded from the Brazilian’s potential rivals.
“The Costa fight is not going to happen and I will explain why,” Strickland said in a video posted to social media. “The UFC wants him to fight Chimaev because this fight will bring them more money. I’m not mad at the UFC, because if they make money, then I make money too.
“Yes, I want this fight, Costa wants to fight earlier, but in the UFC they think like this: ‘What if Sean beats Costa?’ Because his fight with Luke Rockhold suggests that the likelihood of this is very high. Now there is a lot of hype around his fight with Chimaev, the UFC will earn a lot of money from this, and I support them because I am a company person.
According to Strickland, he himself plans to return to the octagon in the near future against an opponent from the bottom of the rankings.
“They told me, ‘Shawn, you have two options – wait eight to 10 months until someone from the top is released or heals injuries, or fight an opponent who is significantly lower in the ranking.’ A lot of people in my position would say ‘I just made a lot of money and I’m willing to wait to fight a ranked opponent so I don’t risk my ranking’ because any top 15 fighter can beat a top 10 guy and a top- 5, but I follow a different logic. I want to fight, make money, and ranking means nothing to me, so most likely I will meet one of the guys outside the top ten, because I ****